If there is one building that most of us know in downtown Estherville it is the Gardston Hotel. This three story building is located on the corner of North Seventh Street and Central Avenue and was recently sold to the city for use as the City Hall.
Here are two additional views of this hotel. The first one is a lithograph and is obviously from the 1910's based on the old cars parked on the front and side of the hotel.
This next card appears to have been produced by the hotel for advertising purposes. Perhaps as something sold at the front desk or the gift shop. It does a fine job of presenting the "modern" services of this facility.
The next lithograph postcard eliminates any vehicles, people, or other features to distract the viewer of this postcard. This may also have been something commissioned by the hotel.
A friend sent scans of two postcards for use on our site. We don't own either of these cards but felt that they offered further details on this city landmark. The first card shown below features a horse-drawn carriage on the south side (right side from this view point) of the hotel and what looks like dirt streets. We do notice that the street lights are the same as those shown on the cards above.
This final scan show different street lights, paved streets, and the vehicles are from the middle to late 1940's.
The final scan is not a postcard but is a blotter advertising the hotel as well as several other business places in town. We don't know the age of this blotter, but realize that the use of the blotter alone dates it to pre-1960's. The other factor that would date this advertising piece is the 2 and 3 digit phone numbers shown on it.
If you would like a full size scan of the first four cards for your personal use please send e-mail and we will make it available to you. We do not honor requests for scans to be used in commercial ventures.
Just as the early photographers in Estherville could not resist the urge to make the Garston a major subject of thier work we can't either. This building has been converted to the City Hall and offices along with a Senior Center and apartments upstairs. The basic structure of the building is the same but there has been substantial remodeling to the lower facade.
If you entered this page directly you can find more about our hometown of Estherville by clicking here and look for the hometown page link.